When we first moved in we did a couple upgrades to the house’s hardware.  Mainly door knobs were replaced in this refurbishment.  But to save money, we didn’t replace them all – just the ones truely in need.  I may have over estimated the ability of 34 year old door knobs to last because since that time (a mere 2 months ago) another 2 knobs have lost their spring.  I have to pull them back to a normal position after turning them.  I’ve included before and after shots to show you exactly what I mean.

So I think now, these are on my shopping list.  I might even be able to afford them before next year since knobs are usually really affordable!

One day – after the kids have grown and their kids have grown – I’m going to replace my brown couches with some contemporary sofas.  By that time, of course, contemporary will be old fashioned.  Or maybe it will have been so long since it was in style it will be in style again but with bell bottoms.  You know how fashion works in cycles.  I just hope that I don’t end up so old that I think polka dot couches would look great in my striped room on the plaid shag carpet.

I don’t need to look for the best slimming pills when I have my sweat diet going on.  I spend 4 hours in the sauna called my living room unpacking and I loose 2 pounds.  At this rate I only need to put in a week of unpacking and I’ll reach my goal weight.

Two weeks and I’ll dwindle down to nothing.

Not that I’m bragging all you people out there who actually exercise to burn off weight.

I am dog tired.  It might be the fact that I’ve been chugging caffeine all day and am finally crashing.  Or it may be the fact that we’re keeping the house at 84 to save money.  Top that little tidbit off with the fact that part of the house seems to not be connected to the A/C and I’ve been working in 90 degree heat and we may have the real reason behind my fatigue.

Resolve:  I will get someone to come out and tell me why half the house won’t cool BEFORE winter comes and it becomes pointless.

I’ve been watching too much HGTV.  I want to have more modern furniture and I’ve convinced myself that all I need to do is paint it all black.  The bed will be black, the bureaus will be black and all the bookcases will be black.  And all the walls will be yellow.  I will paint the cabinetry blue and the front door will be red.  I will paint, paint, paint until everything looks like it has been given a beutiful sheen (it will all be a gloss finish).

Another surprise that came with the house was the horrible damage done to my patio chairs.  This summers wretched sun has completely disintegrated the covers on the pads and if I plan to keep them, I’ve got to learn to sew.  I don’t plan on buying new ones since even on clearance they cost about $15 each.  I’m not going to drop that kind of money on cushions that fall apart after only a couple years.

Maybe I’ll find some used ones somewhere.

The new house came with a variety of gifts left behind by the previous owners.  Along with the bath mats and a table on the back porch, we got a large number of loofahs and sponges and some half used proactive junk.   They left behind used qtips and a cat food bowl with just a little bit of cat food in it.  They moved out  a long time before they sold the house and I’m not sure how they were expecting to sell the house with the trash in each drawer.  Weren’t they lucky we came along?

My house has ickie medicine cabinets.  They look like they are original to the house – built in 1976.  There’s a ton of rust and I really hold out no hope for them in the long run.  In the short run, I really don’t think we can even afford a do it yourself bathroom remodel.  Which is too bad because the Robern medicine cabinet would be a perfect replacement.  One more thing to save up for.

As I was unpacking all our pots and pans I realized two things:

1) None of them match.  We have no two pots from the same set.

2) We have only two pans – one that’s too big for anything and one that’s too small.

So right after that I started thinking it was time to buy a complete set – something we’ve never owned in our 11 years of marriage.  And then I started thinking about just how much and all clad copper core set would set us back and I realized that might be a gift to save for our diamond anniversary since it would cost about that much.

The total disarray of my abode is making me go insane.  I’m at a point where I can’t do anything to improve it and I haven’t even gotten all the stuff out of storage yet.  I can’t unpack the books until the bookcase is built.  I can’t move the furniture until the books are put away.  I can’t hang the pictures or put away the knick knacks until the furniture is moved.  I can’t fill the extra holes in the walls until the pictures are hung.   I can’t paint until the extra holes are filled.

It seems that all of this hinges on the bookcase.  But it doesn’t – it actually hinges on the front door.  Since I can’t build the bookcase myself I need my husband’s help.  As you may have read, he’s not quite ready for heavy lifting or kneeling but that matters less than the fact that he’s more interested in fixing the front doors (they DO need it) but that’s a project that may take a good long time to really finish.

So I’m stuck with no living room, no dining room, no front closet, no laundry baskets and no sense of direction in my own home.

That whole last sentence was an example of my insanity.  Messy places make me cranky – and I’m a slob so you can see how this is a real problem.

Oh! Oh!.  I  just got a good idea about the pool.  Instead of fighting this change of life for it, we let it go green and make it into a pond.  Then we get a few pond plants and I satiate my urge to landscape at the same time we get rid of the pool problems.  I AM A GENIUS!!

The new place has a pool.  What it doesn’t have is clean water.  Oh sure, it thinks it does and reports the chemistry to be perfect but when you can’t see the bottom of the deep end, you know that the pool is lying to you.  We’ve added chlorine, acid and shock.  We’ve brushed, skimmed and backflushed.  We’ve even scuba dived to get palm fronds out.  But the silt in the pool seems to have no desire to leave.  Did I mention that the pump has been going 24/7 for more than a week?  Before we got the house I feared the electric bill.  Now I’m just resigned to something in the $500 range.  If I’m lucky.

Then my husband will come to his senses (he’s been out of it this week, but that’s another story) and stop running the pump and a/c so much.

We bought a fixer upper so that we could get a really cheap house and as fixer uppers go, this really isn’t all that bad.  We don’t need to replace the roof or the a/c.  The water heater works, the electrical is all in the walls (never take that for granted) and the holes in the walls don’t go all the way through.  The layout is nice as well with big living area downstairs and most of the bedrooms upstairs.  I’ve already managed to replace 2 door knobs all by myself and I added weatherstripping to the front door so that the 1/4 inch gap between the two front doors doesn’t let ALL the cool air out.

That last one was actually my least favorite project so far since I’ve never had supper good results with weather stripping.  This time wasn’t really different.  It’ll be practically impossible to open or close the front doors until the stuff gets broken in and in the meantime, it gets ripped off a little each time we open or close the door.  That’s always my experience when I use the stuff so I must be doing something wrong, but I can’t figure out what.  The worst part is that it’s supposed to be fool proof.  HA  I’ve shown them that there’s no such thing.

YUCHHKK!!  I hate moving!  It’s been a week and I’m running low on underwear.  I might actually have to go to a laundomat (I’m so far removed from the concept that I can’t even spell it).  We have a washer with 4 prongs and the house has a place to stick it with 3 holes.  You can see that this is a bit like trying to cross a horse with a tricycle.  We’re looking into genetic engineering as a way to solve the problem and have high hopes that there will be a breakthrough within the week.

We’re packing like mad right now and I’ve managed to fill a very large box with office supplies.  Of course I’ve labeled it ‘office supplies’ but my labels aren’t always so good.  Sometimes I get a little slap happy and make up weird labels.  I’ll hate myself later when it comes time to look for things.

I’ve got “Rocks/Banks” (that’s really what’s in there) and “Kids/Books” (it’s supposed to be kids’ books).  Next thing you know I’ll have something marked “office furniture supplies” but that would have to be a pretty big box if that was a funny label.

Oy vey! The desert sun has done a real number on my patio cushions. At first I thought it was a cat or a coyote or something with claws but I kinda doubt the pattern of tearing would be exactly the same on all the cushions unless it were just the weak way for it to deteriorate. When we next move I think I’ll try my hand at making new cushion covers. Which means I’ll need to fix my sewing maching. Which means I’ll need to find my sewing machine. Which means I’ll need to clean out the garage.

New patio furniture it is.

The green monster has struck again. It only because I’ve been looking at houses out of my price range. You know – the kind with indoor pools and home theater seating and come with a car. I have to bring myself back down to earth with the thought that someday that could be mine if I want to spend my life working in a high stress job. Which would of course lead to early death by heart attack and it helps me remember that I don’t really need that junk to be happy. Or alive.

Just last night as we were packing the car to take a few things to our new city (kind of a preemptive strike against a huge moving van) we found a mirror in the garage that we haven’t used in two years. It’s place in my heart was taken over by a totally different mirror and it was literally shoved behind an old bed – or rather pieces of an old bed. Apparently that’s out rustic furniture corner.

Since I stopped watching as much of the Antiques Road Show, my tastes have gravitated toward the more modern and even the desk from which I currently type has lost it’s charm.

Thing is I have to wait for modern to become passe before I’ll be able to afford it. If only I had bought my winter furniture in spring I’d be set right now.

The thing I think I will dislike the most about moving back to the old hood will be the job hunt. The crazy things employers expect you to remember for and employment screening are just super taxing on my memory. I end up spending days trying to fill out an application so I can dig up all my previous addresses, all my previous employers and supervisors names (some are closed and I can’t remember what ‘Steve’s’ last name was – or if I even ever knew.

I suppose I should put a positive spin on this – it will be very nostalgic.